Graham Newton

A popular musical filled to the brim with famous tunes will be staged by a Grantham group next month.

Harrowby Singers are putting on Hello Dolly! at the Guildhall Arts Centre from March 11. The musical has enjoyed a long-lasting success with numerous Broadway revivals and international success. It was made into a film in 1969, starring Barbara Streisand, and won three Oscars.

The story, based on Thornton Wilder’s 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, concerns Dolly Levi, matchmaker extraordinaire who is on a mission to find herself a husband and she has her eyes firmly set on Horace Vandergelder, the well-known Yonkers Half-Millionaire. Following her late husband Ephraim Levi’s advice Dolly intends to marry Horace and send his money circulating like rainwater! Along the way she succeeds in matching the young and beautiful widow Irene Molloy with Vandergelder’s head clerk, Cornelius Hackl; Cornelius’s assistant Barnaby Tucker with Mrs Molloy’s loopy assistant, Minnie Fay; and the struggling artist Ambrose Kemper with Mr Vandergelder’s weeping niece, Ermengarde. The question is, does Dolly succeed in finding happiness for herself?

The show is full of memorable songs such as Put on your Sunday Clothes, Ribbons Down My Back, It Only Takes A Moment and, of course, the iconic title song Hello Dolly!

Harrowby Singers recently had a big hit with Dracula the Musical at the Guildhall and look set to keep the success going.

The show is being staged at the Guildhall from Wednesday to Saturday, March 11 to 14.

Tickets cost £7 for the Wednesday and Thursday shows at 7.30pm and the Saturday afternoon show at 2.30pm.